Media Bias Debate

You might think that a presidential election year might give the Big Three networks' evening newscasts a shot in the arm. You would be wrong. Full-year figures released last week and available MediaBistro's TVNewser showed yet another audience decline. The comparisons that follow are of the 2007-2008 ratings year just ended (each ratings year begins of fall season premieres) to 2006-2007:

While both CNN.com and FoxNews.com sent e-mail alert subscribers "breaking news" alerts on the Dow's steep slide yesterday in reaction to failure of the bailout package in the House of Representatives, CNN didn't think it worthy of a breaking news text to note the gains made today in the market.Here are the Fox News text messages sent on September 30 regarding the Dow Jones: DOW REGAINS NEARLY…

In his look at the "McCain campaign's end-run around media," San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Joe Garofoli pitted one media insider's defense of McCain campaign strategy on the matter of Gov. Palin's press availability, and that at the end of his 20-paragraph story: "All politicians go through a stage where they want to minimize how much they are exposed to the media," said Paul Friedman,…

From the department of truth admission comes this email from inside a major newsroom: Off the record, every suspicion you have about MSM being in the tank for O is true. We have a team of 4 people going thru dumpsters in Alaska and 4 in arizona. Not a single one looking into Acorn, Ayers or Freddiemae. Editor refuses to publish anything that would jeopardize election for O, and betting you…

UPDATE, Oct. 1, 11:25 p.m.: The final number for deaths from hostile action came in at 8, which ties the previous lows of July 2008 and April 2003. _________________________________________________ This item will likely not make an Old Media splash, because overall US troop deaths in Iraq in September will be higher they were in July and August. But they're probably not interested anyway. To be…

The news comes from Media Bistro's DC Fishbowl, with a twist that the post overlooked: On Friday's "Hardball," Chris Matthews interviewed a number of student members of the group Concerned Youth of America. One of those students -- Caroline -- is his daughter, a student at the University of Pennsylvania. Did Matthews disclose that fact as he interviewed her? Not so much. One tipster tells…

The candidate of change, the shining proponent of a "new way" in national politics, says that you aren't allowed to bring a sign to his rally. So much for the right of free political speech. To add insult to injury, this rally was held at the publicly funded University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia. So, now the government is lending the weight of its authority to squelch free…

This has to rank as the all time most hypocritical piece I've yet seen featuring liberal finger waging at conservatives over their ire at the product of the leftist press. It is conservatives, you see, that have "have put the final nail in the coffin of truth," in essence killing the truth, not the left for doing its level best to eliminate the entire concept of truth. It is our fault for…

In a September 29 blog post aimed at "Placing Blame" for failure of the bailout package in the House of Representatives today, Time's Joe Klein began by tossing, "I don't blame John McCain for not rounding up enough Republican votes to get this bailout bill through the House of Representatives."Klein added a few other reasons he doesn't blame the Arizona senator:...he's never held a leadership…

As I write this on Monday afternoon, the People's House has rejected "the $700 billion bailout." You won't believe, unless you're a very experienced cynic, where that $700 billion figure came from. The answer appears to be "out of nowhere." With no basis. I'm not kidding. Here's the evidence, carried six whole days ago at Forbes (HT LAT's Top of the Ticket Blog via BizzyBlog commenter Dan Scott…

Joe Biden's FDR gaffe was noticed, but with a shoulder shrug, by Newsweek's October 6 edition of "Conventional Wisdom." The same feature cheered Obama's debate performance as "presidential," gave the thumbs up to Dave Letterman's tirade against Sen. John McCain, and reveled in Gov. Sarah Palin's "moose caught in the headlights" interview with CBS "Evening News" anchor Katie Couric."Most popular…

**Video Below The Fold** Well, it took them long enough, but the State run Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) has finally apologized for the obscene attack on Governor Sarah Palin that appeared on September 5 that we covered on the 19th. Heather Mallick called McCain a "hateful little man," called Republicans and Palin "white trash," and also called Palin a "porn actress" in her two…

What if I told you that sheriffs and prosecutors in, say, Indiana, had formed "truth squads" and "subtly" threatened prosecutions of critics of John McCain? Does anyone think that the New York Times, Washington Post and Old Media in general wouldn't be putting the news on the front page, even with the bailout-apalooza going on in Washington? Well, there is a "truth squad." It's in Missouri. It…

**UPDATE - 09/28/08 PM** Barack Obama played the "me too" game during the Friday debates on September 26 after Senator John McCain mentioned that he was wearing a bracelet with the name of Cpl. Matthew Stanley, a resident of New Hampshire and a soldier that lost his life in Iraq in 2006. Obama said that he too had a bracelet. After fumbling and straining to remember the name, he revealed that his…